1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to agents containing Tumor Cytotoxic Factor-II (TCF-II) as an effective component for the prevention and/or treatment of radiation-induced disorders. The present invention provides excellent agents for the prevention and/or treatment of radiation-induced disorders caused by radiation therapy performed to treat diseases such as cancers and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The agents are useful as medicinal preparations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Bone marrow suppression is manifested by reduced platelet count (thrombocytopenia), reduced leukocyte count (leucopenia), and anaemia. Since bone marrow suppression occured as a direct result of chemotherapy and radiation therapy administered for diseases such as cancers and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), it has become a serious problem in the treatment of said diseases. At present, only symptomatic treatments such as infusions of erythrocytes and platelets are used to treat the bone marrow suppression caused by these therapies for these diseases. Although the use of Colony Stimulating Factor (CSF) is gaining recognition as a medicinal agent to stimulate the growth of leukocytes to replenish their number, to date no medicinal agent is known which will effectively prevent bone marrow suppression.
Preliminary experiments showed that a certain kind of biologically active substance derived from the body prevented the bone marrow suppression. Examples of such substances include interleukin-1 (IL-1) and macrophage inflammatory protein 1a (MIP-1a) (G. Damia, Cancer Res., 4082-4089, 52, 1992; B. Lord, Blood, 2605-2609, 79, 1992). However, IL-1 has a strong inflammatory action and is concerned to cause side effects such as inflammation and shock including headache and fever (Saito et al., Geka Chiryo (Surgical Therapy), 65, 156-164, 1991). Furthermore, there has been no report on MIP-la other than preliminary experiments.